I got a new iPhone last week so that when I am at our stand at the Market, I can take credit cards with the Square. I spent a long time trying to figure out the best deal from the many companies, and frankly, it was harder than my first year of college! So when a friend said I should Google Square I did and was so happy that someone (one of the founders of Twitter) came up with this easy method that lets you take any credit or debit card with a smart phone. And the best part is that there’s no monthly fee or service contract. Another added perk is that customers think you are cool if you offer this, don’t ask me why! Kind of like if you’re the first kid to have the newest-toy-on-the-block sort of thing. It couldn’t be easier to use, and the money goes straight into your bank account. Perfect for massage therapists, artist’s, and small business owners. And it works with the Droid and the iPad too. Really, it’s great.

iPhone4

But getting an iPhone has made me cross the line from where I set my boundaries in my own personal comfort zone of technology. I mean, I don’t text because I find it kind of weird to type on something so small, and, I don’t have kids, which I hear is the only way to communicate with them these days. I don’t like to play games. I don’t really get lost, and if I do, I like to look at a map or even ask people for directions (I get a secret thrill out of talking to a complete stranger of the same species as me!). I don’t need to identify a song I like on the radio, I can just enjoy it as something new, and I will leave it to chance when I am on the road and am looking for a good place to eat. If it’s not good, I know it will be an interesting memory, or something soon forgotten.

So imagine becoming immediately addicted to something that I am a bit embarrassed to write about: and that is, checking my incoming email while driving! Can you believe it? It was as if some part of my brain took over and told me: ‘It’s OK…you’re just cleaning up any junk mail and looking for the important ones!” The bad part is that I wasn’t just doing it just at red lights. After catching myself doing it during a long stretch of the ride home, I vowed not to touch that iCrackThing while driving ever again. I don’t know what happened, but it was scary! No wonder Apple is now worth more than the oil companies!

My 10-year-old niece came to visit, and while driving together in the car to the horse ranch that she would be staying at with her Dad in the car ahead, the beautiful mountain views were truly something to behold. She sat next to me playing a game on her new iPhone4. “I love it!”, she says. I told her she can love it, but not while driving on vacation with her Aunt Sadhvi. I wanted her to find enjoyment in the ride and the journey and the wonderful views. She reluctantly put her beloved iPhone away.

Just to let you know, I also write her letters in cursive writing, on cute stationary and send them in the mail with stamps that I pick out, not the ugly Forever Stamps. I’ve heard they don’t teach cursive writing in schools any more, and I think that’s kind a real shame. That’s when I started to send her letters. So maybe my niece will be able to land a job someday because she knows how to read cursive?! No, I’m just kidding. I really just want to make sure she has some “human connection memories” instead of computer games that she’s become addicted to on her awesome iPhone.

Or just maybe all this tuning out and tuning into a hand-held computer that is so cute, sleek and even loveable is just a way to tune out the hectic energy of the world?

Enjoy!

Sadhvi

“Be careful not to fill up every moment of your life with “stuff”: things to think about, to react against, to worry about, be upset about, regret or even look forward to… There’s more to life. You don’t have to stop doing, but you can intersperse your life with brief moments of presence. Like now… allow everything to be as it is. Then become aware that there is an awareness here, a consciousness, & that THAT is more truly who you are than anything else.”

About Sadhvi

Sadhvi's trying to find the balance in life over 50 without having any surgery, taking any pills, or killing anyone. She doesn't want to look or feel the way she felt when she was 20 or 30. Trusting that everything is really OK unless you think about it helps her make it through each day. Also realizing that nothing can be done, and, that nothing matters really helps. Gardening (and weeding), poppies and flowers, painting on things, baking, and sharing on Oops50 helps to make it all right too.
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Hi Sal,
I honestly wish that would become a law in all states. I don’t know when I crossed the line from not having a cell phone, to having one, to start to talk and do business in the car while driving on my cell phone, to taking messages and jotting down phone numbers while driving and twisting my head to hold the phone on my neck while driving and jotting down phone numbers to…now…where I wish there were no cell phones at all. It would save me hundreds of dollars each month too, and it would help the post office stay in business, because I know there would be more letter writing and sending and opening. Ahh. There. I ranted! Thanks, that felt good!

NEW LAW in the state of Nevada starts Jan 1, 2012 – no cell phone in your hands when DRIVING, stopping @ a red light, texting a no-no – just bluetooth and other such things. Fines are a lot for first offense and just get highter for 2 and 3rd.
Drivers have to pull off road to use their cell in their hands in case of emergency.
sal

@Lisa: It is NOT necessary, and, I am not crazy about my iPhone. Really, someone has got to stop this nonsense of having to have the latest and latest and latest!
I am weary of it, aren’t you? I will take mine back. And get a simple flip phone, which, by the way, I really miss with that iPhone!

Maria!
I can live without it. And like my old phone better. I will be returning it.
I guess if you have Verizon, you might be happier than me.
But really, do you need another gadget that you “Love”?
That is the question, I think.
xxx
Sadhvi

Lines jammed on cell phones because of earthquake in Va. today. It was felt all the way to Chicago down to NC.
Well here in State of NV anyone caught using their cell phones while driving will get hefty fines starting Jan 2012. Our state allows blue thingees, and other hand free devices, but no using the hands on the phone anymore – while driving. The law goes into effect Jan 2012 – so be sure to also BUCKLE up – thats more $$. Nobody who lives here goes out to gamble anymore – can’t win any place – got to get money somehow. We do like this new law….so what do we have – just a plain old phone, no text, no emails etc. Just a phone to keep in touch with all our families in the US. We remember when we went camping so we could not hear a phone ring, no TV and rarely had a radio service – how peaceful after a 40 hr week working and having all those phones ringing at Ohio Bell. By the way our son + family went to a dude ranch @ Pisqua?? forest in NC and had a great time – no phones, TV, radio. Cabins had beds and indoor plumbing. Spent days riding the horses. The quiet world is still around.

Ha! After it having the iPhone with AT&T, and getting no reception in so many places, I am returning it! I just can’t handle the dropped calls. I guess I could get one with Verizon, but, I just don’t feel like it now. So no worries about running into me on the road!

Loved this! All that you wrote and the quote from Tolle are some of the reasons we try hard not to get caught up in all the new gadgets out there. Listening to music, watching the scenery, looking at maps, going for days at a time without turning on the TV or computer, writing letters on paper, reading a book from the library that I can hold in my hands, working in the garden and sharing the bounty, sitting in a friend’s kitchen sharing a wonderful cup of coffee, having a basic cell phone that we only use for emergencies on trips – no internet, no email, no games, no apps….. Old fashioned? That’s OK. It is a world I can live in, be more present in, have some serenity in. Thanks, sadhvi. The morning glory is stunning!

Damn Sadhvi…. I’m trying to hold out as long as possible. You make it sound so necessary… I tried a crackberry in March and took it back. Just reprogram my old phone pretty please. In the process I gave up my $15 per month internet fee… because my current phone really doesn’t do email properly. So I’m loving saving the $15… but know how tempting it was to clear the box fast in the wee moments when bored. It seems everyone now has one of the big phones… What a concept to get money into an account so easily… it’s way too easy to get it out and I need to balance that out.